When and How will the Temple be rebuilt? Is there any prophecy for rebuilding the Temple in the Torah?
Answer:
There is a prophecy of a future Temple at the end of the book of Yechezkel. However, the timing and order of events is not entirely clear.
Whereas the Talmud teaches that God himself is destined to build the Third Temple (Bava Kama 60b), the Zohar writes that the Divine construction will descend upon an already standing edifice (Tikkunim 21, p. 60b). A Midrashic source adds that the Messiah will stand upon the rooftop of the Temple (Pesikta; Yalkut Shimoni, Yeshayahu chap. 60, no. 499), implying that the Temple will have already been built prior to the Messiah’s revelation, but the more commonly held approach is that the Messiah is destined to rebuild the Temple. A Tosefta (an early Tannaic source) suggestively reads: “It has been given over to the hands of Israel to build the Temple” (Pesachim 8:2).
Therefore, the process is hazy, and only time will tell.
